EDITOR'S NOTE: What appears here is only a portion of Kathy Keatley Garvey's article on the recent Malaria Awareness Day Symposium. Space limitations did not permit publication of the entire article in the printed version of Dateline. The complete article and photos are available elsewhere online: www.ucmrp.ucdavis.edu/news/malariaawarenessevent.html.

Malaria is a tragedy, a scourge and a global public health disaster, agreed speakers at the recent UC Davis Malaria Awareness Day Symposium.

The mosquito-borne disease is largely eradicated in the United States, but continues to take a toll elsewhere, killing more than 1 million people and infecting 300 million to 500 million annually, primarily in Africa. This despite the fact that malaria is highly treatable and preventable.

"The developed world is addressing this problem now -- it's the right thing to do," said UC Davis medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, director of the Center for Vectorborne Diseases, which hosted the symposium on April 25, International Malaria Awareness Day.

In introductory remarks, Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef praised UC Davis' for "leading the way" in the war on malaria.

UC Davis spearheaded the formation of the statewide UC Malaria Research and Control Group, part of the UC Mosquito Research Program. It partners with the Mosquito Vector and Control Association of California, which includes more than 60 mosquito abatement districts.

Lanzaro said the association has the most sophisticated mosquito-control program in the world, "and we're taking that over to Africa."

-- Kathy Keatley Garvey, statewide UC Mosquito Research Program